The details I keep coming back to.

Building this site has given me a very practical way to talk about design. I enjoy ambitious animation and a distinctive visual identity. I also keep coming back to details that only become obvious when someone actually uses a page.¶

One example is automatic appearance. Following the system, following the local clock and following sunrise and sunset are three different choices. I wanted them to be understandable, with a manual choice still available.¶

Another is text. Some of the smaller labels needed to be larger. Light and dark themes both needed readable contrast. Friends also pointed out that parts of the Chinese felt too literal. A page can be grammatically translated and still sound awkward to the person reading it.¶

Those comments changed the work. Chinese names, sentence order, useful link labels, a CV that opens in a reader: these are all part of how a person moves through the site. I want the polished visual moments and the ordinary reading experience to improve together.¶

The links matter too. Someone reading about a fish in Final Fantasy XIV may never have played the game; someone opening an F1 study may be learning the strategy vocabulary for the first time. A well-placed source gives them somewhere to follow a question without making the page carry every explanation.¶

I also want the two languages to feel equally at home here. That means checking the Chinese name of a driver or a game item, then reading the whole sentence again. A correct term is a beginning; the paragraph still needs to sound like something a person would naturally say.¶

The city observatory adds another test of that approach. An interactive chart needs a readable table, a date and a source. An ambitious effect needs to respect reduced-motion settings. A useful external feed needs a plan for the day it does not respond. Those choices are part of the design I want visitors to experience.¶

The city picker is a small example of how this keeps evolving. I wanted to choose a familiar city from a list, but also type a Chinese or English name and look farther afield. The country beside a result matters: choosing London should not mean guessing which London the system found.¶

Sharing adds a similar question. What should a link carry? For the observatory, I want it to reopen the two cities and the comparison I chose, while keeping the date and source of any new readings visible. It is another small part of making an interactive page useful beyond the first visit.¶